The other day I was in a lift at our local hospital. Above the panel of buttons for the different floors was the maker’s name – Schindler. The term ‘Schindler’s Lifts’ always make me smile, being as it is a play on words for Schindler’s List. But another lift – or elevator if you are from the other side of the pond – was invented by Elisha Graves Otis, who died today, 8th April back in 1861.
Born on 3rd August 1811, Elisha was the youngest of 6 children to Stephen and Phoebe Otis of Halifax, Vermont. He trained as an architect and mechanic and, by 1852 was working for a furniture company in Yonkers, New York. The men used hoists or rope and pulley systems to raise the heavy furniture up to higher floors. Picture a large wardrobe hanging in the air... If the rope broke or if anyone let go, the piece of furniture would come crashing to the ground – with hazardous results. Seeing this, Otis had a light-bulb moment, realising that by using a lift it would make the whole business far less fraught with danger. The following year he founded the ‘Union Elevator Works’. After his early death from diphtheria, his sons Charles and Norton formed a partnership and the firm became ‘Otis Brothers and Company’.
A demonstration of the Otis lift in 1854
Going up... or down?
Blog entry posted in 'Going up... or down?', Apr 8, 2019.
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